May

JEAN BAPTISTE VENTURA

1794-1858

Alias ‘Count de Mandi’

‘General at the ‘Court of Lahore’

General Ventura served in the Armata d’Italia (Italian army) under Viceroy General Eugene de Beauharnais in the regiment ‘Drogoni Della Regina’ where he fought alongside the armies of Napoleon Bonaparte against the Austrian army at the Battle of Leipzig. By 1818, he served the Shah of Persia Mohammad Ali Mirza who had decorated him with the title of ‘General of the Order of the Lion and the Sun’.

In March 1822, along with his comrades he arrived on the outskirts of Lahore, where eventually he became one of the leading personalities at the ‘Court of Lahore’. Along with General Allard, he not only raised the Fauj-I-Khas (Royal Brigade) which included four battalions but his own brigade was to form the elite unit of the Sikh army.

In 1825 he married an Armenian lady Anne Marguerite Elisabeth Moses in Ludhiana, the Maharajah not only arranged a lavish ceremony but he was presented with 10,000 rupees in cash and gifts from his own nobles amounting to 40,000 rupees. In an expedition to Kamlagarh fort near Mandi, he suppressed a revolt by Raja Balbir Sen of Mandi.

With a force of 1200 men his troops stormed Kamlagarh fort and subjugated the entire hill state on behalf of the ‘Lahore Durbar’ For his distinguished services, he was bestowed with the title of ‘Count de Mandi’ by Prince Sher Singh, a title he later used regularly in Europe. By 1856 General Ventura had retired to an estate in France comprising of 23 acres aptly titled ‘Chateau Mandi’.

During his life he had been decorated by Maharajah Runjeet Singh and later received France’s highest recognition ‘Grand Officer de la Legion d’Honneur’ by King Louis Philippe. The charismatic ‘Count de Mandi’ - General of the Khalsa Army died from a painful illness in Toulouse.

IMAGE AND CAPTIONS

052: General Jean Baptiste Ventura

031: Claudine Victorine Ventura – Only child of General Ventura who later died

penniless in 1910.

046: Bicentenary commemoration of General Ventura’s birth celebrated in Italy in

1994.

047: Franking logo depicting the bicentenary of General Ventura’s birth in 1994.

064: Medal of General Ventura depicting the effigy of his patron Maharajah Ranjit

Singh.

065: Hubert Lucot – Descendant of General Ventura who resides in France.

124: A plaque outside the Governor’s residence at Lahore which was the former

residence of General Ventura later occupied by Sir Henry Lawrence.